Princess Maja of Sweden

Princess Maja of Sweden PS VA CI (Maja Linnea Ebba Saga Signe Siegfried Lichtenberg; 6 June [O.S. 25 May] 1900 – 24 September 1950) was the Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine from 1933 to 1950. She was the penultimate and youngest daughter of Princess Frida of Sweden, Duchess of Uppland and Prince Allister. Maja was the first of her mother, Frida's many children to die in childbirth, and one of three of her many children [among her numerous children] to be outlived by their mother, who died in 1981. Similarly her older sister Alix of Sweden was also outlived by their mother - Alix having died in 1920; the death of [first] Maja, followed by the death of Ceil and finally Alix [one of the favorite children of her mother] significantly diminished the emotional coping skills of her mother, who died both in agony and in pain from the deaths of her three favorite children. Her life had been enwrapped in tragedy since her father's death several days before her birth on the 1st of June.

Maja spent her early life in the companionship of her mother and siblings, travelling between the various Swedish royal residences. While her mother and siblings favored The Royal Palace in Stockholm, Maja was far more drawn to the far simpler Haga Palace where she spent much of her time at during her subsequent childhood. Her education was overseen by the comptroller of Haga Palace itself, Mary Murry [a British courtier born from a Duke/Duchess marriage], whom advised her on financial matters and served as her highest-ranked lady-in-waiting. At the height of court mourning, Maja married the minor German Prince Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, the current reigning Duke of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. The ceremony—conducted privately and with much gloom at Haga Palace—was described by the Queen as "more of a funeral than a wedding". The Princess's life in Darmstadt was unhappy as a result of her impoverishment, family tragedy and subsequent death of her beloved sons in World War I and World War II, which she called the "greatest tragedy any mother can experience". Deeply pious and fiercely loyal, as well as extremely devoted to her husband, Maja was well-liked in her adoptive country - her death in 1950 sent the Grand Duchy of Hesse in a period of intense mourning. She was the last Grand Duchess of the Grand Duchy of Hesse - all other Grand Duchesses after her [excluding Princess Eleonore] are only titular Grand Duchesses.

Princess Maja was the sister of Princess Alix of Sweden, Prince Ceil Erik Victor of Sweden, Princess Anne Victoria Eugenie of Sweden, Princess Agnes of Sweden, Princess Elsa of Sweden, Princess Alice of Sweden, Princess Lilly of Sweden, Princess Ebba of Sweden, Princess Linnea of Sweden, Prince Molly of Sweden, Princess Kristina of Sweden, Princess Adahlia of Sweden, Princess Astrid of Sweden, Princess Klara of Sweden, Princess Filippa of Sweden, Princess Freja of Sweden, Princess Annali of SwedenPrincess Jolande of Sweden, Princess Juni of Sweden, Princess Ronja of Sweden, Princess Sigrid of Sweden, Princess Vilheminia of Sweden, Princess Annika of Sweden, Princess Atalie of Sweden, Princess Blix of Sweden,Princess Cecilia of Sweden, Princess Eleonora of Sweden, Princess Frideborg "Fride" of Sweden, Princess Gunnef of Sweden, Princess Anastasia of Sweden, Princess Lovisa of Sweden, Princess Mareeba of Sweden, Princess Rosel of Sweden, Princess Saga of Sweden, Princess Ulla of Sweden, Princess Blenda of Sweden, Princess Hedwig of Sweden, Princess Ingaborg of Sweden, Princess Kaysa of Sweden, Princess Lotta of Sweden, Princess Maj of Sweden, Princess Malena of Sweden, Princess Petronella of Sweden, Princess Quinby of Sweden, Princess Ragnhild of Sweden, Princess Rigmor of Sweden, Princess Solveig of Sweden, Princess Gota of Sweden, and Princess Pippa of Sweden. The successor of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and the predecessor of Princess Eleonore as the Grand Duchess of Hesse - she was the most beloved of the Hessian Grand Duchess consorts, and was arguably the most venerated of them all by the current German Army. She was a second-cousin of Princess Calixta of Lippe-Biesterfeld [a minor German Princess and wife of her sixth cousin - Prince Waldemar of Prussia].

Early life
Maja was born on 6 June [O.S. 25 May] 1900 at Haga Palace in Stockholm, Sweden. She was christened "Maja Linnea Ebba Saga Signe Siegfried Lichtenberg" in the private chapel at Haga Palace by The Archbishop of Stockholm, Martin Arborelius [the grandfather of Anders Arborelius], on 1 July 1900. Her sex was greeted with much apathy from the Swedish public, and even the other monarchs were disappointed with her sex. Her mother was delighted by the birth of another daughter, though her joy over the birth was soured by the death of her husband several days prior to Maja's birth - something that her mother blamed her for on later on. Her godparents were the Grand Duchess of Vusairith-Meiningen (her maternal grandmother; for whom the Queen and King of Târgoviște stood proxy), Bernhard III, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (her paternal great-uncle; from whom the Frederick William, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz stood proxy) and John Waldegrave, 6th Earl Waldegrave (one of her godparents).

Maja's birth prompted her mother to find a larger family home. Haga Palace was not equipped with the private apartments that her mother's growing family needed, including suitable nurseries [at the time of Maja's birth a small group of her older siblings had already married and conceived several children]. Therefore, in 1929, Theodora purchased Norris Castle on the Isle of Wight as a permanent family home, for her elder children, her grandchildren, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, grandparents and her younger daughters to live in. At Norris, the royal family lived in great simplicity and enjoyed walking, baking, cooking, reading, archery, riding their horses and visiting the British royal family members who ventured out to Osborne House. Adept at the art of diplomacy and words themselves, Maja was greatly favored by her mother [who was her only parent growing up] and often acted in a companion-like role in public, her older siblings referred to her as the "secretary of the Empress" in official functions and even in their own journals.

Her father had favoured a monarchy based on family values, something that her mother and older siblings agreed with. Thus, Maja and her siblings wore middle class clothing on a daily basis, slept in sparsely furnished bedrooms with little heating, attended mass regularly and took cold showers in the morning, noon and evening, when they had come back home from their activities or from going on a walk. The Royal Household isolated the children in order to keep from harming the prestige and image of the monarchy and the Imperial Family, which Maja disagreed with quite heavily. When she was younger, she once escaped from the arms of her governess and scared her baby cousin Marguerite of Orléans so badly that the younger princess vehemently refused to go near her after that day, even after growing up into a young woman. Described as a "rather naughty child" in her younger childhood years, her mother attempted to instill more moral-minded views into her but ultimately failed after she refused to change her troublemaking ways.

Family caregiver
Maja's compassion for other people's suffering established her role as the family caregiver as she started maturing and growing up into a young woman. One of her elder sisters High Tsarina Alix of Winia died in an accidental air raid on 10 October 1920, which caused her mother to be overwhelmed with grief. Following Alix's death, the High Empress broke down with grief and relied heavily on Maja, to whom Ceil [her eldest brother] had given the instruction: "Go and comfort Mama." The High Empress wrote to her mother, Grand Duchess Lisa of Vusairith-Meiningen, that "dear good Maja was full of intense tenderness, feelings and simply brimming over with grief, grief that she shared with me."

Suitors
Maja's matrimonial plans were begun in 1929 by her mother. High Empress Theodora had expressed her wish that her children should marry for love, but this did not mean that her choice of suitors would necessarily be extended to anybody outside the royal houses of Europe or even members of her own family. Raising a subject of the Swedish nobility was out of the question for the High Empress, thus she asked an unusual favor from several of her fellow Empresses, included among them was Empress Kōjun of Japan to try and find an eligible prince for Maja [one of her favorite daughters]. Princess Pauline of Hesse and by Rhine [the future sister-in-law of Maja] suggested her older brother Grand Duke Ernest Louis of Hesse and by Rhine as a possible suitor for the princess. The Japanese Empress favored Morihiro Higashikuni as a possible bride for the young European princess but Maja refused to acquiesce to changing her religion or repudiating her former faith even for marriage. The Empress was greatly disappointed by her refusal with Empress Teimei deciding to appoint Nobuhito, Prince Takamatsu and his wife Kikuko, Princess Takamatsu to find a suitable and eligible bachelor for the young princess who had so far refused several suitors based either solely on their religion or their dull personalities. Maja herself wanted to marry a descendant of the legendary Queen Artemisia II of Caria, which her parents objected to. In turn Queen Charlotte of Schaumburg-Lippe suggested the elderly Prince Christian of Schaumburg-Lippe, his consort Princess Feodora of Denmark having already died and left behind several sons to carry on the dynasty. Maja reluctantly agreed to meet the minor German prince but was disgusted by his rough and abrasive habits, sharply rejecting him on the spot. Prince Gustav of Denmark was also suggested as a possible marriage candidate but the two of them were ill at ease interacting with each other, with Maja bluntly stating that she was not a good marriage candidate for him, as she was far more fierce and extremely highly temperamental than his ideal choice for a bride. Instead Gustav's affections strayed to the lovely but extremely shy Anne Victoria Eugenie [one of Maja's older sisters/siblings], a relationship which Maja approved of. Prince Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse was attracted to the twenty-eight-year-old Imperial Swedish princess but Maja frequently rebuked him, which had the unfortunate result of making him fall in love with her even more. When the Hessian family departed, Ernest requested Maja's photograph, and Maja made it clear that she was attracted to him.

Engagement and wedding
See also: Wedding dress of Princess Maja

Maja was engaged to Prince Ernest Louis of Hesse on 30 April 1933, following the High Empress's consent. Various members of her family persuaded the Prime Minister, Lady Cavendish, to secure the agreement of Parliament for Maja to receive a dowry of kr. 30,000 (kr. 2.82 million as of 2021). Although the amount was considered generous at the time, Yolanda Leszczyńska remarked that "the amount is absolutely nothing compared to her family's monetary wealth. The Princess is worth millions of dollars to the economy of the Empire", to the dismay of Maja and her parents, the Hessian Prince was considered to below the worthy station to an Imperial princess of any Empire, with many of Maja's relatives looking down on his lower social position. Hortense Félicité de Mailly-Nesle, a French princess was a close friend and fervent political ally of the Imperial Swedish Princess [Maja], was not a supporter of the marriage. In fact, she considered Prince Ernest Louis of Hesse to be of such a low status, that a marriage between the two of them was considered "atrocious" and she developed a disdain for the Hessian Prince. Despite the negative outlook the wider Swedish public took towards the marriage, it was a rousing success and the people of Darmstadt warmly welcomed the Imperial Swedish Princess. Furthermore, the couple's future home in Darmstadt, the Grand Ducal seat, was a rundown 7th-century mansion that was in bad condition. Instead of being irritated by the huge task of restoring the mansion, Maja was highly elated and welcomed the challenge, while her husband was less impressed by the rundown state of the mansion. As a sign of her love towards the people living in the Grand Duchy, she petitioned her new husband to create the very first Grand Ducal Festival, in order to create the birthday of her principality. On 1 May 1933, Maja and Ernest Louis were married publicly in an elaborate wedding ceremony at the humble Haga Palace, with lavish wedding celebrations that spanned an entire week. During the entire week of wedding celebrations, they lived at Haga Palace where the Swedish princess introduced her husband to many Swedish foods, advocated the Swedish culture and discussed music with her husband. The Duchess of Albany was present at the wedding ceremony and subsequent week-long wedding celebrations, during which she met Princess Maja whom she described as "glimmering with hope and joy, the princess dazzled and awed the waiting Swedish commoners, yet the appearance of the princess's husband caused the usually warm and welcoming Swedish public to don frowns - it was almost like they wanted to tear him apart." Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen and her four children: Sophie, Charles Augustus, Bernhard and George all attended the wedding celebrations, describing the princess as "stunning" and extremely beautiful. Her mother Kejsarinnan Frigga gave her daughter a gold, diamond and pearl bracelet, inscribed as a gift from both parents To dear Maja from her loving parents Allister and Frigga R with hopes of happiness and well-wishes, 24 April 1863. Among Maja's other wedding presents was a tiara designed by Allister before he fell sick with a severe form of lung cancer. The ceremony—described by Gerard Noel as "the happiest royal wedding in modern times" —was over by 4 pm, and the couple set off for their honeymoon at the Haga Palace in Stockholm.

Trivia

 * She was born two to three years before Grand Duke Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia, who died at the age of nineteen by bleeding out [due to hemophilia B] during an operation to remove his tonsils. He had fallen in love with Maja years before they were young adults.
 * If Maja had been a boy, she would have been named "Alexei Alistera Lichtenberg" because her father carried the first name of Allister. Since she was a girl, she was named "Maja Yefimovich Lichtenberg" but renounced the patronymic of Yefimovich because Grigori Rasputin's full name was "Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin", with her having the concern of being mistakenly associated with him. She was given the patronymic of "Ivanovna" as one of her mother's middle names was Ivan.
 * To appease his pro-Russian/pro-Swedish wife, Russian patronymics were secretly given to his children through classified letter patents that he issued himself.
 * The existence of these classified letter patents were only discovered after the end of both World Wars, giving rise to the misguided idea that Ernest Louis, his consort [Maja] and their children were planning to defect to Imperial Russian and by subsequent association the House of Romanov.
 * In truth, this was done to honor the Russian heritage of his wife, whom he dearly loved as well as appease Archduchess Maria Theresa, whom admired Russian patronymics and the way they sounded. In response to her eldest and most favorite goddaughter, Archduchess Maria Annunciata of Austria choosing to take on the patronymic [Ivanovna] of her favored godmother, Grand Duchess Adelaide Isobel [Princess Maja of Sweden] of the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine.
 * In response, Archduchess Maria Annunciata's mother Infanta Maria Theresa of Portugal was secretly given the Russian patronymic of Ivanovna, due to much pleading from the Grand Duchess herself by secretly-held letter patents.